Towards reaching the health-related millennium development goals: progress report and the way forward
This report provides an update on the progress made towards the achievement of the health and health-related MDGs; it further identi fies the main challenges and proposes the way forward
In 2000, world leaders adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration and the millennium development goals (MDGs), setting the year 2015 as the date for reaching the targets. The MDGs constituted an unprecedented commitment by world leaders to comprehensively address peace, security, development, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
Three of the eight MDGs are health goals: they are
- Goal 4, Reduce child mortality;
- Goal 5, Improve maternal health; and
- Goal 6, Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.
Several other MDGs are monitored through health-related indicators; they include
- Goal 1, Eradicate poverty and hunger;
- Goal 7, Ensure environmental sustainability; and
- Goal 8, Develop a global partnership for development (see the table in Annex A for anupdated list).
Significant commitments to the MDGs have been demonstrated by countries of the WHO African Region. Examples of these commitments include the Abuja Declaration of 2001 requesting countries to allocate 15% of public expenditures to the health sector; the 2005 WHO Regional Committ ee for Africa resoluti on on achieving the millennium development goals;1 and the 2008 Ouagadougou Declarati on on Primary Health Care and Health Systems in Africa. Similar commitments have been demonstrated by development partners through the United Nations Secretary-General’s MDGs Africa Initiative and the Harmonization for Health in Africa mechanism.
